February 12, 2006

Cancer Just Might Be a Thing of the Past

The Sunday Timeshas a report on a new cancer drug called Tarceva that might make cancer just another (expensive) chronic illness. But its high cost might make it unavailable to poorer patients who do not have insurance.

The “wonder” drug costs £75 a day and Sikora says the NHS must admit that it cannot afford to buy such expensive medicines for everyone.

Sikora said: “You need to take this drug forever, once a day. Imagine if all cancer patients had that additional cost on top of routine care.”

£75 works out to $131.02 a day, or $47,822.30 a year. That means that a man who is diagnosed at age 60 would end up paying an average of $765,000 before he died.Here’s the link to the full article: